The present invention relates to an articulated industrial robot, that is, an industrial robot having at least one articulated arm with an articulated wrist at its distal end. The invention particularly concerns a wrist for a robot of this type.
Conventionally, the robot wrist carries an operative member, for example, a gripping member, which is rotatable about a plurality of axes. The wrist has a series of drive units for rotating the operative member about these axes. In conventional solutions, if the operative member is to be rotated about only one axis, more than one drive unit must always be operated, however, since it is necessary to operate both the drive unit controlling the preselected axis and at least one other drive unit in order to cancel out an undesired rotation about a further axis caused by the rotation about the preselected axis.